


Unless you want to

by OnyxxStone



Series: White and Gold [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anal Sex, Brotherly Love, Consent Issues, Dom/sub Undertones, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Incest Kink, M/M, Multi, Past Abuse, Threesome - F/M/M, Unconventional Relationship, bisexuality strikes again, girly bits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 08:03:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6230581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxxStone/pseuds/OnyxxStone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cody adds another dimension to his relationship with Landon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“What. Is. This."

Cody blinked open his eyes to see his wife at the foot of the bed in the guestroom, staring at him and the figure tucked against his side. He smiled.

“Katharine,” he said warmly. “You’re home early.”

A fierce silence followed. She scowled. “Damn it, Cody, this is why we have rules.”

“You’re going to wake him,” he said in soft voice, because Landon so rarely slept in.

“ _‘I’m going to wake him?’_ ” hissed Katharine, her eyebrows raising. “Seriously, fuck you, Cody.   This is what I come back to? I missed _Wicked_ for you – no, stop laughing, you asshole …”

Cody couldn’t help it. He ran fingertips through Landon’s hair. “Just, look at him.”

She came, slowly, forward.   The scorn transformed to shock as she took in the unmistakable details of his serene face. Shock then turned into something…softer.

“Oh,” she said on a half breath. “Cody, he’s…”

But Landon was turning over, waking up with a quiet murmured sound. They watched him become aware, somnolent smiles descending into mortification. Cody held him back from lurching out of bed.

“So you must be the mysterious brother in law.” She grinned, after a moment. “You can stop looking so scared, Landon. Both of you get dressed and come downstairs,” she said, her voice trailing as she turned from the room. “And wash your hands, Jesus.”

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes later they stood around the kitchen, nursing mugs of coffee.

“I can’t leave you home alone,” Katharine was saying as she peered into the refrigerator. “Are you allergic to the grocery store?”

“I had other things on my mind,” said Cody, who was tracing little circles into his brother’s palm.

“Yes, things you decided not the share.”

In an amused, half-hearted voice, he said, “Surprise.”

She scoffed, closing the door to the refrigerator and leaning against it. No one spoke for minute, until the quiet was broken by Landon’s first words all morning:

“…You know?”

He still stared at Katharine as though he’d found a misspelled word in the dictionary.

“Of course I know,” she told him. “You think I would marry this man without knowing all his secrets?”

Landon continued to stare.

Katharine said, grinning: “You’re hot. Like, actually. With the way Cody talks about you I half expected a puppy to show up on the doorstep. All big eyes and soft hair.”

Landon let out a breath that could have been laughter, then unexpectedly, shoved him.

Cody laughed as he saved his coffee from spilling. He found Landon’s matching smile and angled for a kiss. But Landon shook his head after a glance to Katharine.

“It’s alright,” she said with an easy flick of fingers, and sipped from her mug of coffee. “Promise.”

They kissed lightly, one peck becoming two, then more, and then a deep press of searching mouths until Landon broke away and avoided their eyes.

Because Katharine was blatantly watching them, and she had this odd version of a smile to her lips as she looked to Cody.

“Quiche,” she said.

“Quiche?”

“Yes, quiche. We should have a real breakfast, and I want that quiche from the place I like. Won’t you get some for your travel-weary wife?”

“Katharine,” he toned lowly, “it’s in the city, it’ll take me half an hour to get there, and then find parking…”

She watched the pieces fall into place. In the same tone she answered, “Cody.”

He wrapped a protective arm around his brother, and she sat herself in the cushioned kitchen nook.

He didn’t want to leave him alone, which, obviously, was precisely what she wanted. She cupped her chin and drummed her fingers lightly along her cheek, amusedly waiting for his reply.

He frowned. His brother and wife were not on the best terms, to say the least; if he didn’t stay and mitigate…. What if she said the wrong thing? His stomach lilted at the thought. Landon needed his brother here

But Cody scolded himself, and sighed. “I’ll be an hour or so,” he murmured to Landon, and kissed his temple. Katharine smiled.

“Oh – ah – I can come with…”

“No, stay. It’s okay Landon.”

“It’ll be good for the two of us to chat,” she said simply, before taking a sip of her coffee.

“Remember it’s the one with broccoli, hmm? And hey, come here.” She had taken his hand as he headed for the door, and squeezed it. Her bright eyes said, _Trust me._ He did, of course. And he felt stupid for doubting it for a second.

He murmured three words before kissing her cheek softly. “Try to be good, you two,” he said as he picked up the car keys from the hook.

Katharine winked.

Landon looked ill.

Cody rubbed the back of his neck, slipped on the sandals by the garage door, and decided to let the chips fall where they may.    


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People with histories of abuse may find this triggering!

Cody lived in a quiet suburb of Washington, DC. It was verging on ridiculous how quaint the town was, and he smiled to himself as he drove by the lush summer greenery. He could hardly believe this picturesque scene was his life, because he had been like Landon not too long ago: alone, and never thinking he might find someone and – he snorted – “settle down.” He dated here and there, but it always ended the same. Fuck someone enough and inevitably the questions start cropping up… about his childhood, whether he was close with his parents, if he’d ever been in love…

He had been diagnosed by several exes with the emotional failings of “typical guys.” Ironically, he hadn’t the heart to correct them.    

It was lucky then, that Katharine had heard all his lies and knew his track record before anything had started between them.

He mused over their beginnings at a stoplight, his eyes landing on a teenaged couple sharing an ice cream at a sidewalk café.

He and Katherine were friends to start; she’d been engaged to his boss, but their relationship hadn’t survived her job offer in Chicago.  He saw no reason they couldn’t remain friends after she moved away.

Years passed before they woke up together one Sunday morning, naked and miserably hungover in his bed, with no memory of how they got there. They’d laughed it off over brunch, and decided to remember the next time.

Cody lowered the windows to let in fresh air, reliving the memory as he merged onto the highway: at that time Cody was already regretting the day he’d lose a friend when he’d inevitably have to end it.

He winced; what a cynic he’d been.

One time, examining the bruises on her hips after a particularly rough fucking session, she said mildly, “Who’s Landon?” and wasn’t put off when she didn’t get a reply. She’d ask randomly, trying to surprise an answer out of him. God, she’d been relentless.

But she finally got one the night Cody let her put him in restraints. He hadn’t expected much, honestly, just the usual teasing and cautious swats that curious people deliver when they want to be “kinky.” Yet, something had changed when she bound him to the bed. He’d been … scared. It had reminded him of the last time he had struggled like that, when Richard had chained him up. She had edged him to the point of delirium, to where he couldn’t tell the difference between pleasure and pain.

_Who’s Landon_ , she asked, and he’d been blind with the fury she’d dare approach the subject then, before he was suddenly begging her to stop playing with whatever torture devices were on his nipples. It had fucking hurt, those clamps.

Richard hadn’t cared. Richard liked hurting him. He got off on it. Louder, he’d say. Let me hear you.   The bruises from the handcuffs didn’t fade for weeks.

But the clamps had come off then, his skin soothed by a soft tongue, cool breath, and a voice, saying, _Who’s Landon?_ He was so hard. He’d missed Landon so much. She entered him and his body was breaking apart. _Get out_ , he may have cried, but Richard was laughing in his head, and Richard didn’t care about his tears.

With a start he saw he was well above the speed limit, and lifted his foot from the accelerator.

He remembered her saying, _You know what to tell me,_ and his scrambled thoughts then became suddenly clear. And even though she was just asking for his safe word, he’d told the truth.

_And are you in love with him, Cody?_

At his answer, Katharine had finally let him come. The ties were loosened. He told the whole sad story with his head in her lap, and cried for a good while, and had the best sleep he’d had in years.

Of course, the next morning she had been furious to discover he’d let her come close to reenacting past trauma. But Cody was glad she was still there - and cared - at all.

_There are worse things,_ she had said, _than loving too much._

He had proposed not long afterwards.

Today Cody wore his ring on the hand atop the steering wheel, and it shone in reflected sunlight. He decided then to stop by the grocery store as well on his way home.

Two hours had passed before he got back. He found Katharine and Landon laughing in the kitchen, a cold pot of tea and two crumpled tissues on the table between them.

He didn't ask.

“I got your quiche,” he said, and set about gathering plates for brunch. “All’s good?”

Landon got up and took the plates from his hands. “Yeah,” he said, and kissed Cody on the cheek.


	3. Chapter 3

Katharine took a nap that afternoon when the two of them went to the Stanford Alumni cycling club. Landon, he was happy to see, fit it in with his friends like a glove. It was heartwarming to see that smile again.

“How was your ride?” Katharine asked when they got back. But Landon didn’t answer, and just gave her a hug.

She was making dinner that night, which meant sautéed vegetables over one of two grains she knew how to prepare. Tonight: pasta. By her own admission, she wasn’t much a cook. Which was why it surprised Cody to see baking paraphernalia over the counters.

“What is so funny?”

Cody checked that Landon was climbing the stairs, and with an impish grin he said, “Why don’t I bring out your maternal instinct?”

Katharine barked in laughter, and flicked a piece of dough at him. “Because you can take care of your damn self, that’s why.”

Chuckling, he hugged her from behind, sneaking a taste of what looked like lemon filling while she shoved him away.

“Oi! Get off. Dinner’s not ready.” But they were both grinning, and she accepted a light kiss before he headed up the stairs. “Use our shower, yeah? Remember, the tub in the guest bath is the slippery one. 

Cody heeded her advice, and followed his brother upstairs.

 

* * *

 

Dinner was casual, comfortable affair. They spoke about little things, like the sweltering DC summers, about Katharine’s simple, flavorful meal, and their respective past few days. Cody found himself wishing, painfully, that this could be normal.

He didn’t think it was possible to create inside jokes within ten hours of knowing a person. He caught their shared glances and stifled laughs over the course of the conversation, and stood corrected and content. They weren’t drinking wine that night but he may as well have, for how warm and relaxed he felt watching Landon and Katharine get along. Landon had asked for stories from her “wild college days,” and had just contained his mirth enough to say, “And after that, you chose my brother, of all people.”

“Yes, well,” said Katharine with a dramatic sigh, “of the three men in my life who’ve let me peg them, he was the cutest.”

Cody laughed. “Such a romantic.”

“Always, dear,” she said, and patted his hand.

Landon looked between them, his surprise hidden as poorly as the pink coloring his cheeks.   He cleared his throat in a moment they all noticed.

He said, “So you made lemon squares?” And stood up to serve them.

Maybe he thought he was safe for the next few minutes, as they asked about his Ph.D., and he gave a rundown of his dissertation, and what researching comparative literature actually meant.

Katharine waited until he was talking easily before she asked, “And did you enjoy fucking my husband earlier?”

With a sudden snap, the genial atmosphere of the dinner evaporated. Landon looked between them, unsure if he understood what he’d heard. Cody smirked around his bite of lemon square as the silence became delightfully uncomfortable.

“Sorry…?”

She said, “I asked you a question, Landon.”

Landon clutched for words, and flushed, hard. “I…I…don’t…”

“I asked you,” she said, her voice both pitiless and patient, “if you enjoyed having sex with my husband this evening.”

“…It’s not…we didn’t… I’m…”

But Katharine just raised her brows, and after a painful moment Landon whispered, “ _Yes._ ”

He dropped his eyes, and Cody could practically see her thrill mounting, even if there was no outward appearance: she leaned back into her seat, arms crossed at her waist, her slender hand cupping a water glass from a lax wrist. But her eyes never left Landon. She said, “Tell me.”

Landon, who had just reached for his fork, fumbled and dropped it. It hit the floor with a clatter neither Cody nor Katharine reacted to.

Landon’s fingers darted to the fresh bruises hiding under his shirt.   This silence was even harder on him. “ _Katharine,_ ” he pleaded, eventually.

Cody hadn’t heard him say his wife’s name before; he never expected to like the sound of it so much.

“…Katharine, don’t…”

“Answer the fucking question,” she said, her gentle voice never wavering.

Cody saw goosebumps sweep down Landon’s arms. His brother’s eyes closed, and Landon had to stop worrying his lip to say, “…the shower.”

“Were you on your knees?” she said next, as though asking about a passing news headline. She finished her water and placed the glass back on the table.

Landon shook his head sharply, once. He looked resolutely at his plate, the lemon square he hadn’t finished.

“You didn’t suck him off?”

Another shake of his head. The lovely blush spread down his throat and Cody, whose eyes had been enjoying their feast, realized that Landon wouldn’t – or couldn’t – look back at him.

He spread his legs a bit wider to relieve the raw heat building in his groin.

“How did he fuck you?”

Landon bit his lip. “Please.”

“With his cock?”

“… _no…._ ”

“With his hands?”

“…Kathar – ”

“A toy?”

Landon choked on his words twice before whispering: “… _his tongue…_ ”

If possible, the blush grew deeper. Cody grinned.

He recalled the heat of the water on his shoulders as knelt behind his brother: Landon’s skin all flushed and clean, his breath dragged out him as he panted, legs quivering and moaning into the steam.

“And did you like it?” she said.

Landon squeezed his eyes shut; his hands were gripping the edge of his seat. Landon had many talents, but this, clearly, was not one of them. Barely, he nodded.

“That wasn’t an answer, Landon.”

He ducked his head and made a softer version of the sound that had resounded at the climax of their shower.  

“I liked it,” he said, forcing the words out. “I – I came.”

“Just from his tongue?” she clarified.

“…Just from his – I – _yes_ …”

She gave Cody a look that said, Impressed.

Cody liked to imagine she looked the same in her conference rooms, her entire mind chiseled to one purpose, her voice made irrefutable with confidence. And if, like now, her purpose was pleasure, there was no way not to submit.

She said, “Come here.”

Landon froze, a light frown lining his forehead, waiting for an explanation that was not going to come. Cody could see the questions darting through his mind - _do I move my chair closer? Do I stand up? Should I just lean forward?_

Firmly: “Come here, Landon.”

There was a violence to Richard’s brand of domination. He required a level of … unwillingness… from his sons. But Katharine had no interest in violence. She simply liked being in control, however it was given it up.

…however one chose to give it up.

Landon slipped out of his chair with the cautious movements of one stepping into a familiar, yet pitch black room. He knelt on the floor beside her.

She smiled like a fox, and ignored the look Cody shot her. “Good boy,” she said.

A painful, tortured sound escaped his brother. Landon shivered, visibly; his eyes kind of glazed over and he tipped precariously, until sinking down to sit on his heels.

For a while she just looked down at him. “Open,” she said, and Landon’s lips parted. She fed him the last bite of his lemon square, smiling when the pink tip of his tongue darted out to catch the last flakes of crust on her finger. She raised his chin as he chewed, and he lifted reluctant eyes to hers.

“Go upstairs. Take off your clothes. Wait for me.”

Then she turned back to the table and to Cody, asking, absurdly, if there were any more green beans, and appeared oblivious to the abandoned, blinking, beautiful man kneeling at her feet. Cody humored her with a banal conversation about leftovers until Landon stood, silently, failing to hide the erection under his jeans. He blinked again, and before he turned from the room they heard him say, 

“Yes, Katharine.”


	4. Chapter 4

“ _Your brother._ ”

“I know.”

“ _Holy shit, Cody, your brother!_ ”

“Katharine, I know….!”

And that moment he felt understood, as he never truly had before, and they dissolved into silent, mutual excitement. She came to sit across his lap and buried laughter into his neck.

“Ah, I really want to fuck him.”

“Clearly.”

“May I?”

“…Can I watch?”

She kissed him, heartily. “God do I love you. Give me twenty minutes. Then come up.” They kissed again, and Cody’s hands traveled up her back to fist in her hair. He wanted her so badly, and she knew it.

“I’m going to make him want it,” she said. Such heat flared across his skin at the thought: this impossible, bone deep desire for the both of them, that he wondered if he could last twenty minutes at all.

He kissed her throat and said, “Be gentle.”

Her smile was positively vixen. “Aren’t I always?” At the bottom of the stairs she said, “which room do you think he’s in?”

Cody laughed, because it was obvious. “Yours,” he told her. “And sick with nerves.”

“Perfect.” Then she disappeared up the stairs. 

 

* * *

 

The minutes passed interminably by. Cody distracted himself with the dishes. He wiped down the counters. He put away the pan of lemon squares. He did everything but touch his aching cock, and think about what his wife and brother were doing in his bed.

He looked at his watch: eighteen minutes was close enough. He bounded up the stairs, and pushed open the door to his bedroom.

 

* * *

 

The sight of them knocked the wind out of his chest. He leaned against the wall and drank them in. He had a fleeting wish of capturing this image in some way more permanent than a memory.

Landon was lying on his back, his hands lightly gripping Katharine’s hips, who straddled him. Both were naked.

Landon’s toes were flexing and twisting in the sheets. He curled up, reflexively, but each time Katharine’s hand found the center of his chest, and pushed.

“Feel it,” she said.

Landon’s neck arched and he moaned, loudly.

It took Cody a few moments to realize what was happening, because Katharine wasn’t moving at all. A light sheen of sweat glistened on her chest and that was the only indication.   He let out a slight huff of laughter, and Katharine caught his eye and winked.

Cody knew from experience: she was pleasuring his brother only with the muscles of her cunt, constricting and soothing with such relentless grace that she was fucking him more with her mind than the heat and the power she wielded between her legs.

Landon gasped like a man strangled.   “God, Katharine!”

He gripped her waist and tried to force a more satisfying rhythm from her.  

But she had the upper hand, and strength of her own. Landon’s wrists were pinned the mattress, and she said, “No.”

Landon saw his brother then.   He whimpered, muttering something unintelligible. His face was flushed and transparent with pleasure, with need.

“Look at me,” she said. But ten seconds later, Landon’s eyes sought him out again. She gripped Landon’s chin and made him look up at her.   “He’s not the one fucking you, is he?”

Landon shivered and might have said, “No.” The sound seemed to please her enough, because she began to roll her hips in slow circles.  

Landon squirmed, arching and wilting beneath her. “Fuck,” he moaned. And again, softer, “ _Fuck._ ”

Cody, somehow, was naked. He stroked a slow hand up and down his length, and came closer to the bed. Katharine picked up her pace, making the most of Landon’s last few lucid moments.

Cody swept the heavy black plaits of her hair over her shoulder and kissed it. He placed a careful hand on Landon’s thigh, feeling it tremble. Then Cody and Katharine watched him come, watched him give himself up to a pleasure equal parts glorious, and delicate, and beautiful.

Eventually, Katharine stepped off the bed.

“Did you come?” he asked her, his fingers gravitating between her legs.

She said, “Only a little.”

She was so wet, and the thought that struck him that it wasn’t just Katharine he was feeling, and then he was blind with the need to be inside her.

Their mouths were grappling and demanding in a frantic kiss, and in the next moment, horizontally. They rolled so she was atop him.

And laying on his side, a foot away, Landon was watching them through heavy lids.

Katharine rode him hard and fast, driven by her own speed. She made careless sounds, her legs gripped him in a vice and her pear-shaped breasts rose and fell with harsh breathing. She slowed to a stop when her orgasm hit, and Cody took the opportunity to flip them over. Her body was soft in some places and firm in others; feminine and strong and perfect. He loved seeing her abandoned to him like this.

But two pairs of eyes looked up at him.

He could feel his heart beating forcefully, and the feeling seemed too great to fit in his chest. Unbidden, his hand gripped the headboard, and Cody let his muscles work as they’d craved all evening: he propelled his hips with an intensely singular purpose, driving the heat and need of his body into Katharine. He was getting close.

Cody lost himself in the picture of Landon’s face, and fucked into her faster. Katharine was coming – again, or still, he wasn’t sure – her biceps flexed as she gripped Landon and screamed her pleasure into the pillows.

“Yes,” Cody heard himself say. “ _God, fuck, yes._ ”

Landon was stroking his back and urging him over, and then finally, magnificently, he was.

He became aware of Katharine’s chuckle. Facing him, she was lying in between the two brothers.

“ _Brothers,_ ” she said, and laughed under her breath. Landon’s smiling eyes met his and they each nuzzled her neck. He watched Landon’s hand slip over the side of her hip and she purred, like a cat in sunlight.

He reached heavy fingers up to brush Landon’s face.

“Goodnight,” he said softly. Landon kissed his thumb, lips like petals brushing over the pad of finger.

Landon murmured, “Goodnight.”

In the serenity of that summer evening, the words fell on Cody’s ears like a promise 

Katharine was smiling at no one in particular.

Curled around each other, they fell easily into sleep.  


	5. Chapter 5

The next day was easy. They went for a morning run; they lazed around the house; they meandered to their local farmer’s market, and bought fresh flowers and white summer peaches. A few hours later, Cody found Landon and Katherine napping on the couch and sleeping like spoons. He picked up the newspaper that had fallen from her hand, and thought this might be the most perfect Sunday afternoon he’d ever had.

The three of them made an easy meal of leftovers that night, eating on the couch in front of some popular TV program, and laughing at the wrong moments.

Katherine had her head in Landon’s lap and her feet in Cody’s. Her toes were painted in same shade of red as her fingers. He’d been running an absent hand down her calf and ankle, just as Landon was absently playing with her hair. She gave a happy sigh. 

“I think it’s bedtime,” she said, when the credits rolled. “Join me?”

 

* * *

 

The windows were open in the bedroom, the soft curtains rolling in the blessedly cool breeze. Whatever tension or urgency was present last night wasn’t there now.

Cody kissed his brother.

He let his hands caress his shoulders, down his tapered waist to his slim hips, and cupping the firm curves beneath. Landon moaned into his mouth as he and Katharine made quick work of his pants.  

Cody’s clothes came off next. He hummed approvingly as Landon lowered his boxer briefs and stroked what he found.   Katharine slipped Cody’s unbuttoned shirt from his shoulders.

It didn’t take long to free Katharine from her clothes. She didn’t have on anything beneath her dress.

Mostly roused, Landon approached her slowly. He let their legs, and hips and chests press soundly before cupping her face and kissing her, like his height was an apology, like her lips were the well of the freshest water in the world.

She pulled him back the bed, but when she sat, he knelt; Landon kissed his way down her body and began, with thoughtful passion, to pleasure her with his mouth. Katharine arched back into the sheets and smiled.

“Is he good?” Cody asked, stroking his brother’s hair as he came forward.

“He’s …he’s _nice_ ,” she said, her eyes closing a bit. “Not like you. Come here.”  

Chuckling, Cody lay beside her, and they adjusted a bit for Katharine to take him into her mouth. She was slow, deliberate, and drew on him hard, as he liked it. It wasn’t her best because she was distracted, but then again so was he. It was irresistibly warm and there was a finger in his ass so it didn’t really matter, anyway.   He rested an arm above his head and let out a deep, satisfied breath.

A few wonderful minutes passed like this, before Katharine rolled away and had Landon take her place. They interlocked fingers as Landon devoted his mouth to Cody, instead. Cody’s eyes closed, the small of his back arching slightly.

Nice wasn’t the right word.

He thought of Richard’s hand, forcing Landon onto him. He thought of that Thanksgiving break, where he’d cornered Landon in the powder room and covered his brother’s mouth so their mother wouldn’t her them fucking a few feet away. He thought of Landon, crying in his arms from one of Richard’s sick games, not knowing he was stepping directly into Cody’s.

It was suddenly incomprehensible that Landon was here, with him. Cody realized: he didn’t deserve this.

“ _Beautiful_ ,” he said, barely. “ _Landon, you are beautiful_.”

His brother lifted up, his face shy and pleased and happy.

Cody wondered if there existed any word that could capture how thoroughly beautiful Landon was. With an ache in his throat it struck him that Landon would know, but in the next moment they were kissing, and all thought instantly faded away. They rolled, arms wrapped around each other, bodies primed and ready. Landon’s legs parted, and this time, he wouldn’t make his brother cry.

“You too, Cody,” came Katharine’s voice. They paused and looked back to find her rubbing lube on a grey strap on of decent size. “I’m going to fuck you while you’re in your brother.”

Cody closed his eyes, and willed himself not to come. He became aware of an odd silence.

Then, “Unless you want to, Landon?”

Cody looked at his brother beside him, who had turned his face away.

She said, “Have you never?”

And Cody made a sound, because they hadn’t, ever, and _why?_

Katharine helped Landon up to sit beside her, and then, too many hands were on him.

Steering him to hands and knees. To his elbows, as his back was pressed downwards.

His breathing became quick, uncontrolled.  

He heard Katharine, semi-consciously: ‘ _see how he wants you, Landon_ ,’ and ‘ _don’t be nervous, he can take it._ ’

There was flash of cold against him; he didn’t know whose hands kept him still nor whose fingers pressed him open. He moaned into the sheets.

And then, he felt it. Felt it press, and press harder, until he gave and it was inside him.

They both made the same sound.

Landon fucked him with slow, rhythmic firmness. Hands traced up and down his sides, across his chest, along his arms to hold his hands. Skin touched, everywhere. It was unbearable, for how perfect it was.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise but it was. Landon was exactly the same as always had been, each and every time they’d done this. He was gentle, and generous, and every conscious movement was an act of love.

“Good?” Landon asked.

His body thrummed and he heard his loud, staccato breathing. He couldn’t form any words.

It was one thing to feel this tenderness as he usually did, claiming and possessive. It was something else entirely to have it – _to let it_ – inside.

Cody’s voice fractured.

Landon kissed his neck, and said, “Hush.”

His eyes closed but he became aware that Katharine, somehow, had maneuvered beneath him. She drew him inside her, and the sensation was too intense to believe.

They worked him in tandem, and rational sense disappeared. Landon was so, impossibly deep within him, as deep as he burrowed in Katharine. She held his head against her breast and he thought, no one had ever made love to him like this before. 

He was compelled to tell them how important this was, how his heart couldn’t stand the force of it – but he collapsed under their voices and his vision whited out, and climax consumed him, silent and gorgeous as a hundred dying stars.


	6. Chapter 6

A quarter after seven the next morning, they heard Landon bringing his suitcase down the stairs. Cody and Katharine were having a comfortable, silent breakfast at the nook in the kitchen.

The rolling suitcase seemed to echo around them as Landon took it to the front door. He stared at the bowl of fresh peaches they’d bought, pale with a golden blush, and wondered how long they’d last. He noticed Katharine watching in his periphery.

“Hey,” Landon said softly, coming into the kitchen, and helping himself to coffee.

“You’re all checked in for your flight, and everything?” Cody made himself ask. He felt a strong and sudden hatred of Mondays.

Landon nodded. “I should catch the train soon.”

“I ordered you a car,” said Katharine, and ignored his gentle protests. “It’ll be here in an hour.”

Landon shifted on his feet, looking between them and his mug. “Thank you, for this weekend. I’m glad … that you’re happy, here.” He took a breath, as though he were about to confess something. But all he said was, “I hate saying goodbye.”

“So don’t.” Katharine had him under her gaze. “We want you to stay, Landon. Move in with us.”

Cody couldn’t bear to look at her. He heard Landon laugh like a man who had nothing to lose. “You don’t mean that.” His brother lifted a shoulder, briefly. “Besides, I’ve got to get back to –”

“What, exactly?” said Katharine. “An empty condo? A city full of ghosts?”

The hand holding coffee trembled, and Landon brought his other hand to steady it.

Katharine continued: “Here, you can start over. A fresh start…” Cody felt her eyes pass over him. “…with your family.”

A long silence elapsed. Cody met his brother’s eyes, and they gazed.

He whispered, “What would I do?”

“Fucking…anything you want. You have a degree that certifies you to read, research and write better than literally everyone else. In multiple languages. Landon,” she said, and touched his chin with a knuckle, “All the doors will open for you. You just have to show up and knock.”

She cupped his face for a moment, and busied herself with packing her briefcase. Landon sat slowly down across from Cody. A few minutes later, she came back into view, looking impeccable in her khaki pantsuit and light silk blouse. She lifted the keys from the hook, and kissed Cody and Landon on the cheek. 

“Safe travels,” she said with a smile, and then she was off.

 

* * *

 

They were quiet, sitting together. After a few minutes, their hands found each other’s on the table.

Landon spoke eventually. “Did she mean that?”

Cody smirked. “Katharine always means what she says.”

“That’s not what I – ” but Landon stopped, seeing Cody’s laughing smile. He said, shyly, “Do you want me to stay, Cody?”

There was only one possible answer, and he gave it, honestly. Landon’s breath quickened. His brother came around to him, sat across his lap, and kissed him soundly.

Then: “You’re not just saying that because you want me to top you again?”

A little heat rushed to his face, and he found he liked when Landon teased him. He smiled against Landon’s cheek. “I’m not just saying that because I want you to top me again. I… I love you, Landon.” Because he couldn’t say, _Choose me._

They kissed again, deeply; Cody wanted more, wanted to carry him to the dining room repeat Friday all over again. But the weight of Landon’s flight encroached on them and tinged their kiss with something frantic, and sad.

He peeled himself away to get ready for work.

The hour passed too quickly

The car arrived.

He watched it take his brother away as he walked to the Metro stop.

Sunlight dried the two tears on his cheek, and he replayed the last words Landon had said, gentle and sure: 

_I love you too, Cody._

**Author's Note:**

> What kind of person is Katharine, to condone/facilitate this relationship? Do you like her as a character? 
> 
> I'm curious what you think! Let me know in the comments ^_^


End file.
